Adding a steady stream of content such as news stories or feature articles to a website is a fantastic way to boost its SEO.

Not only will it provide more pages for Google to index and more chances for a website to be found via search engines, it is also likely to increase a website’s authority within Google as a whole. After all, one of the main functions of the search giant’s recent update Google Panda was to better reward websites which produce content on a regular basis.

The extent that content will boost a website’s SEO is dependent on a number of factors. This article presents five tips for boosting the SEO value of a website’s blog posts or news articles.

1. Use keywords

News articles are only likely to significantly boost the SEO value of a website if they feature the keywords being targeted in the company’s broader SEO strategy. This is one of the many reasons why it’s important to feature content which is relative to the purpose of the website and not something completely unconnected to the business.

Try to include keywords in the titles, URLs, meta descriptions and in the copy of your articles, but not too often as this can appear spammy; damaging the article’s SEO value. Including just one or two keywords in your copy is generally accepted as enough.

2. Make it worth reading

Writing quality news or evergreen content will obviously result in a lot more people clicking on and actually reading the article – but there are SEO benefits to doing so as well. Inbound links are crucial part of SEO and quality thought-provoking articles are much more likely to attract links than boring uninspiring content.

The most successful web content is that which aims to entertain its readers, rather than simply boost SEO.

3. Anchor text

Many companies include internal links to other pages of their website within their news articles. Enclosing these links within keyword-rich anchor text can help Google decipher what the page being linked to is all about and is much better way of boosting SEO than using phrases such as ‘click here’ or ‘read more’ to link to pages.  

4. Keep Writing

Successful SEO does not happen overnight. In order to significantly boost a website’s authority within Google, it will normally take a good few months of relatively consistent writing. For this reason, it is important to keep on producing quality content on a regular basis, regardless of the impact it is having on search engine rankings in the short-term.  

Those producing quality content should still find a boost in traffic directly from the articles, especially if they are being promoted through social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. They also provide a reason for visitors to return to the website at a later date – so there are plenty of short-term or long-term benefits of producing news content.